Cleanup crews move in on Mississippi oil spill

March 18, 1980

Coast Guardsmen and private contractors worked with vacuum trucks and spongelike pads along a 10-mile stretch of the Mississippi River Monday to clean up 370,000 gallons of oil spilled from a barge collision on Sunday. Officials predicted the cleanup could last 10 days. The Gulf Strike Team, a pollution-control team based in Bay Louis, Miss., was called in to supervise the work. Oil containment booms were set up at the St. Bernard and Westwego municipal water intakes to ensure the spill would not contaminate water supplies.